PARMENAS (a constant). — Sixth of the seven deacons chosen and consecrated by the Apostles to attend to the widows of the Hellenistic Jews who had converted (Acts 6:1-6). Since he bears a Greek name (Παρμενές, an abbreviation of Παρμενές), like the other deacons, it is probable that P. was also an Hellenist. Nothing else is certainly known about his life.
According to Pseudo-Hippolytus (De septuaginta Apost., 12; PG 10, 956), P. would have been one of the seventy-two disciples chosen by Jesus and would later have become bishop of Soli. According to Pseudo-Dorotheus (De septuaginta Domini disc., 11; PG 92, 1061), he would have died in his diaconate in the presence of the Apostles.
The Roman Martyrology celebrates him on 23 January as a martyr of Philippi in Macedonia, under the Emperor Trajan (Acta SS. Ianuarii, II, Venice 1734, p. 453). Pietro De Ambroggi